Human factor effects on output

[Saito2 6686]

Often times the people running the show or department heads, lead engineers etc. have an impact on the types of products we see. In the Corvette world, for instance, Zora Arkus-Duntov, Dave McLellan and Dave Hill all left an imprint on the car as chief engineers. Designers and managers do as well. It seems we outside of Japan tend to think of Tamiya as a big mysterious company sometimes. We never really know what's going on in there and why they make the decisions they do. We make educated guesses, sometimes based on the market or sales but many times, we really don't know. Outside of cash flow and how the RC market is doing, how about the human factor?

From reading Mr. Tamiya's autobiography, it seems RC was not really in the cards at first. It was Fumito Taki's keen interest in all things RC that we really have to thank. It was his RC passion (and ingenuity of adapting a Tamiya static body to an electric chassis) that allowed the whole thing to take off. His insistence granted him his first RC project under Tamiya, the M4 Sherman and led to the Porsche 934. He obviously left an imprint and the planets aligned as RC took off through the 80's granting us Tamiya's golden age of RC. 

There have been times of stagnation after that era and times of innovation. Granted, cash flow and product demand probably have a lot to do with it. When chassis designs are re-used and rebodied with little forward design momentum it could be money or it could be lack of inspiration. It could be engineers or it could be management clamping down. Sometimes there a spurts when we saw the DF03, DB01, High Lift and CR01 come out as more "fresher" designs. Stripped of the re-releases, we've been riding the DT03/TT02B wave for awhile now while seeing the death of TRF. While the comicals are neat in their way, they are very much recycled WR01/GF01 hardware. Even the G601, while quite new to our eyes, is more design language from the GF01. The portals were a neat innovation though. Colored editions just fatten up the product portfolio without really adding anything meaningful. I admit I'm speaking from a off-roader's perspective so forgive my bias. So, is it all down to money or do the people involved play their part too?

[Juggular 4964]

People are indispensable because we are all influenced by other people.  

There was a psychological test.  The testing room was slowly filling with smoke.  Left to their own devices, about 80% would report fire, warn others to leave the room, etc.  If the tester says, "oh, it's nothing."  Only 10% would report fire.  The role of one leader can significantly change the outcome.  People are more likely to be influenced by others if they think they are "independent."  Those who know how dependent human beings are, tend to belong to that 10% who goes against the leader.  Instead of believing the word of a person, they go with the hard evidence of smoke.  

Another test was on car accident.  If the tester asks, "how fast the car smashed into another car?"  People would answer that it was harder.  If the tester asks, "how slow the car touched the other car?" people would report the speed to be slower. 

By the same token, I have a feeling that if one lead engineer hates the bottom of the chassis to be scratched, he'd set suspensions hard.  Other engineers would knowingly and unknowingly go with that standard.  It could also be affected by words and analogy too.  If a lead engineer says "shocks are like legs, they prevent your bum from scraping the ground."  Then the standard is set for hardest shocks.  

If the lead engineer says, "shocks are like legs of a downhill racer. They are to soak up the shocks that the bicycle itself couldn't absorb."  Then the standard is set for soft shocks.  

People like Fumito Taki is hard to find.  Every human wants to go with the flow.  Even leaders want to do less, not more.  Only occasionally there would be somebody who wants to do more.  It takes a lot of energy to do more.  If you hear about those who ended up taking the leader roll in survival situations?  They often die.  Followers live.  That's why human society is like bee hives.  We make cities so we can live with others.  

So yes, if there is one engineer who wants to innovate things, he(she) would butt heads with management, sales, other engineers to get things done.  He'd be going against the flow, so if he tries 10 things, only 1 would be approved.  In several years, he'd be worn out and go with the flow.  Sometimes that's a good reason to hire young people as soon as old engineers retire.  Not saying that I should be forced to retire, I'm saying I don't have new ideas like young guys (if I were an engineer).

 

[Lee76 638]

I’ve worked as an engineering consultant for large Japanese companies, as well as several European ones, there are huge cultural differences. Take Honda for example, in japan, a lot of large companies having a job is very much a job for life, it would be almost unheard of for someone to leave a large company and work for a rival, it’s disloyal. So it’s quite easy for a company to become set in its ways because there’s not so much cross pollination. There’s also quite formal routes for communication, you typically talk to your counterpart and your team leader, you do not talk to other team leaders, you talk to yours to talk to theirs or you talk to your counterpart and they talk to them.. We had meetings where it was important to sit in the right order along the conference desk in order or seniority, lowest to highest.. failure to do this would cause confusion and literally no one would follow the course of the meeting as they were too busy fretting about the seating order.. To be fair, Some German companies do the ranking thing too, but don’t lose the plot if you as a consultant don’t.. management do not like to be contradicted but the worst part for me, was people were absolutely afraid to 1: say no.. and 2: admit error.. If your boss said design a pen it has to have infinite ink with no refills, you’d say yes.. then waste the next 20 years ‘developing’ infinite ink not able to wave your hand and say.. nope, it ain’t working.. So translate this to a Tamiya business model, lets say (in business speak) you have a rising star a cash cow and a sick dog.. The sick dog will most likely never be put down, this is admitting defeat, saying what I’ve done isn’t the best. yay for us, because you’ll probably be able to buy niche product lines for a while.. Your cash cow will will grow old along with the permanent management team that go with it. To them it’s a tried and tested model, why change? This will eventually decline to a sick dog. The rising stars and question marks, lets call them the new ideas, the comical buggies might fit this category. They are ‘new’ ideas, but follow the original business model, not too diverse. The problem with the business model, is it’s not really increasing market share, or breaking into new markets, it’s just ticking over and if we’re honest, like static kits is on the decline. But I don’t say all this as a bad thing. I’m actually happy with some of this.. If this were a European or possibly US company, there would not be the job security, people move around more (or are moved out more), sick dogs are taken out back and shot! So product lines are dropped for being seen as ‘not as successful. Mercedes once closed an entire Truck manufacturing plant, not because it wasn’t profitable, but because it wasn’t as profitable as one of its rivals and they would rather not compete than compete and be second best.. Back to the Honda example and the job for life part, the new starters, graduate engineers ultimately they wind up following identical paths to their predecessors, The road cars and lawnmowers is where the cash cows graze and to keep the flow of graduates coming in, they use the racing divisions, F1, Super bikes etc as the training ground, somewhere to have a little fun for a year or two before you go off to design door handles for eternity. In Europe, racing is taken more seriously and it’s all about the winning, so the welcome carpet is just a hidden conveyor belt to cycle through as much grey matter as possible, there’s no long term future in door handles to look forward to, it’s deliver or die!

[Saito2 6686]

Thank you for that valuable insight @Lee76! Fascinating stuff. I had a hunch Japanese culture played a part in it. IIRC, Fumito Taki didn't even work in the design department of Tamiya when he got hired. I think the story went that he constantly wrote small messages on his paperwork that he wanted to work there, which irritated his superiors. You had your place and you were expected to remain there and do your job diligently. His persistence paid off though. He got his wish and I'm willing to bet, we got a lot of cool, inspired RC products because of it. 

[Lee76 638]

Oh, speaking of cultural differences and linking the two together.. I was offered a job in California with Honda R&D.. short drive from surfing and snowboarding they said, great place to live.. but when would I be able to do these things? They only gave 2 weeks holiday!!! You guys will obviously set me straight but I hear it’s not uncommon (at least not for this company) for a family vacation to be the stay home wife and kids take two or three weeks off and the ‘working man’ takes his flexible days to have long weekends with them.. perhaps this is just motorsport.. But no thanks.. I get 30 days flexi...and gender equality so both the missus and I can be miserable at work together  

[Saito2 6686]

44 minutes ago, Lee76 said:

I was offered a job in California with Honda R&D

Could be a Japanese thing or could be a US thing. We work ourselves to death here in the US compared to other countries. I get one week off a year and those days must be selected at the beginning of the year so they can schedule around that. If too many critical employees want off around the same time, too bad, pick another day. Overtime can be mandatory and working 10 hour days plus Saturdays are not out of the question. The Japanese also don't take enough time off. The workers reported feeling guilty when they took time off. Honestly I do too. It makes a mess of things and I don't like taking a day off to come back to a mess so I usually don't take vacation time and end up losing it. I make up for it by being home and 100% accessible to my family at all times other than work. I don't live beyond my means and my mortgage is my only debt but that's the work culture. Like I say, I can stop working when I'm dead, lol.

[Juggular 4964]

7 hours ago, Saito2 said:

Fumito Taki

80's Tamiya RC was another level.  It really tickled engineers in all of us.  

Now? meh. Too many re-runs, and not as unique.  

If Tamiya had another guy like that Fumito Taki guy, they would have had Konghead twenty years ago, and half track 10 years ago. 

I don't mean the actual historical half tracks.

But maybe Tamiya could have used it to make Wild Willy 3 or something.  It would be silly, it would not run fast. But it would be quintessentially Tamiya.  I miss that.  I rather have 1 funky Tamiya than M09, M10 and M11 combined (we call all guess there will be incremental improvements on M-chassis. They won't disappoint, but they won't surprise us either).  

[Killajb 1546]

I am fortunate enough to live in Japan.. however I feel extremely lucky to have also befriended the honorable Taki San as well.  Here is a photo of my first long chat with him about the direction of Tamiya and influence AI will have on the future of RC.  I think there are other voices at work inside Tamiya at this point in time but it's purely speculation.  I honestly value even the distant relationship I have with Taki San enough to not ask about such things.  

I'm sure cash flow is a major part of our Tamiya product mystery..  but also factor in the wide range of products Tamiya offers in the form of static models, science kits and such as well that would possibly steer focus away from a highly competitive market in RC at the present time.  Sure, there's no logical explanation as to why Tamiya would release such things as the MudMad while discontinuing the The NovaFox and Wild One.. only time will tell I presume.

[Saito2 6686]

3 hours ago, Killajb said:

I'm sure cash flow is a major part of our Tamiya product mystery..  but also factor in the wide range of products Tamiya offers in the form of static models, science kits and such as well that would possibly steer focus away from a highly competitive market in RC at the present time. 

A key point we RC enthusiast tend to overlook. It is the Tamiya Plastic Model company after all, not the Tamiya RC company. At times we point to what Tamiya could be making or should be making. Some of these ideas from Tamiyaclub are great, inspired and fit well within what Tamiya is about. What we get is a product line that seem adrift or coasting sometimes (not always) and that well may not be the lack of innovative designers but rather lack of financial resources to power such dreams. It must be like a finite box of Legos they get to play with when times are tough.

[Biz73 603]

12 hours ago, Juggular said:

80's Tamiya RC was another level.  It really tickled engineers in all of us.  

Now? meh. Too many re-runs, and not as unique.  

If Tamiya had another guy like that Fumito Taki guy, they would have had Konghead twenty years ago, and half track 10 years ago. 

I don't mean the actual historical half tracks.

But maybe Tamiya could have used it to make Wild Willy 3 or something.  It would be silly, it would not run fast. But it would be quintessentially Tamiya.  I miss that.  I rather have 1 funky Tamiya than M09, M10 and M11 combined (we call all guess there will be incremental improvements on M-chassis. They won't disappoint, but they won't surprise us either).  

Someone needs to create a set of tracks for the G6-01! I would love to have a half track Konghead to drive around.